Bank Holiday travel plans in chaos after thieves target cables on busy rail line
Travel plans this Bank Holiday weekend were thrown into chaos after thieves targeted signalling cables at one of the UK’s busiest rail lines.
The attempted heist between Birmingham New Street and Wolverhampton on the West Coast Main Line left trains from five different firms facing long delays and cancellations on Friday.
National Rail initially said the disruption had come to an end in the early hours of this morning, only to issue a further update hours later saying it has re-occurred.
Trains are now expected to be affected until at least 1pm this afternoon and passengers are advised to check journeys before travelling.
It comes as day trippers look to make the most of the sun this weekend, with temperatures expected to peak at 23C in some areas before showers come back next week.
The issues are affecting passengers travelling with Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry, London Northwestern Railway, Transport for Wales and West Midlands Railway.
Many train services will also be affected this weekend as Network Rail carries out engineering projects.
Routes affected
Avanti West Coast between London Euston and Wolverhampton / Shrewsbury / Manchester Piccadilly / Blackpool North / Lancaster / Glasgow Central / Edinburgh, and between Birmingham New Street and Crewe / Holyhead / Glasgow Central / Edinburgh
CrossCountry between Bournemouth / Paignton / Southampton Central / Bristol Temple Meads / Birmingham New Street and Manchester Piccadilly
London Northwestern Railway between Birmingham New Street and Wolverhampton / Crewe / Liverpool Lime Street
Transport for Wales between Birmingham International and Aberystwyth / Shrewsbury / Crewe / Chester / Holyhead
West Midlands Railway between Birmingham New Steet and Wolverhampton, and between Wolverhampton and Walsall / Rugeley Trent Valley / Shrewsbury
The Met Office is predicting that all regions of the UK will see dry spells this weekend, with the sunniest and driest periods coming on Saturday.
Deputy chief meteorologist Mark Sidaway said: ‘The bank holiday weekend will see some sunny spells and it will feel quite pleasant in the sunshine for many on Saturday in particular.
‘Sunday and bank holiday Monday will likely see a return to sunshine and showers.
‘Low pressure to the west is likely to push fronts into the UK on Sunday, these tending to break up and turn more showery in nature as they do so.
‘We are likely to see some heavy, possibly thundery showers on both days, but there should still be some dry spells in between, and in any sunshine it will feel pleasantly warm.’
Friday saw the start of the long weekend coincide with the beginning of half-term for many schools.
The RAC predicted more than 20 million leisure trips by car will be made between Friday and bank holiday Monday.
That would be the most for the late May bank holiday weekend since 2019.
Aviation analytics company Cirium said Friday looks set to be the busiest day of the year for UK airports since October 2019, with more than 3,150 departing flights.
A total of 8,486 flights are scheduled to depart between Saturday and Monday, equating to more than 1.5 million seats.
The most popular international destinations for UK departures are Dublin, Amsterdam, Palma, Alicante and Malaga.
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